Vendetta
by The Guest Girl
Summary: He was just trying to do his job as a hero. Just trying to save an innocent kid. It's too bad that the kid turned out to be not-so-innocent. Now the team has no idea where he is, or if he's even alive. Rated T for character abuse and language. Spitfire and Rob/Wally bromance, plus extreme overprotective Barry. MOMENTARY HIATUS DUE TO MUSE DEATH.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I know, I know, I should be working on Sisters of Magic, buuuuuuuuuut, this would not leave me alone! So, I'm gonna borrow a little catchphrase I found somewhere on the internet;**

**PROCRASTINATION AWAY! *swoosh swoosh***

**Any way, first Wally abuse fic! Contains Rob/Wally ****bromance****, and LOTS AND LOTS of Spitfire. Chalant and Supermartian are also included, but they're kind of brushed off to the side. After all, it **_**is**_** a Wally fic! **

**Chapter 1**

**The; I-Feel-Evil-Writing-This-But-I'm-Still-Going-To Chapter**

The lock on the door clicked open. A large black silhouette was outlined in the doorframe as yellow light poured into a small, dark room. In the middle of the floor, a dark form lay huddled. The man in the doorway walked across the room, kicking the form on the ground as he walked. _Hard._

"Git outta the way, boy." The man growled. Stepping over the whimpering kid, he walked over to the only two pieces of furniture in the room, a sturdy table and chair. Placing a half empty beer bottle on the table, he turned back to the boy, who was attempting in vain to crawl toward the open door. The man grinned.

"Now, now, sonny boy. You know you aint supposed ta do that!" he said. He grabbed the boy by the neck and threw him into the chair. He laughed maniacally, his grin only widening as he heard the boy cry out in pain. He stopped laughing and leaned down over the kid on the chair.

"Guess wha', boy? I have sum'in ta show ya! Err, more accurately, sum _one _ta—" The man broke off, starting to laugh again. The boy cringed away from his disgusting beer breath.

"Sum 'un ta introduces ya to!" the man finished. He stopped laughing. Suddenly his hand shot out and grabbed the boy by the chin, forcing his face upward.

"Look at people when der talkin' to ya, boy!" he growled, only causing the kid to shrink away more. With a snarl, the man dropped the boys face and stood up to his full height. Grabbing the beer bottle off of the table, he took a deep gulp. He then proceeded to belch in the boys face.

"As I were _sayin_, there's sum 'un who wants ta see ya! An ol' friend o' mine, maybe ya've met 'im! He's da one ya got ta thanks for reuniting ya with yer ol' man. An' he has a few things tha he wants ta thank you fer!" He took another swig from the bottle, finishing it off. He began to walk toward the door, but stopped, and turned back. There was an evil gleam in his eyes that caused the boy to start to shake as his father stalked back toward him.

"But, ya know, he aint due fer a couple o' hours. It'll be a perfect time fer some father-son _bonding time._" He said, breaking the bottle on the wall on '_bonding_', and raising it above his head on '_time_.'

"Won't…that… be… _fun_?"

_**BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLE-**_

A freckled hand smacked the snooze button. With a groan, the boy in the bed rolled over to go back to sleep for a few more minutes.

"_Wallace West!_ You better not be going back to sleep!" his mother's voice came from down stairs.

"Five more minutes, Mom!" he yelled back. With a yawn, he flipped onto his stomach, lying face down. "School doesn't start for another two months…" he mumbled into his pillow.

"You're supposed to meet for patrol with your Uncle Barry in fifteen minutes!" his step-dad, Mike*, called up. Wally's eyes shot open.

"Shoot!" he said, and was up and dressed in a flash! He raced down stairs. Grabbing a bowl, he filled it to the brim with milk and cereal. After about ten bowls of cereal, three apples, fifteen glasses of orange juice, a kiss on the cheek for his mom and a hasty "See ya later" to Mike, he was out the door and walking down the sidewalk. Arriving at a secluded place*, he hurriedly changed into the Kid Flash costume. He hid his civvies in under a dumpster.

Then he was off, racing down the streets to meet his uncle.

Suddenly he heard a scream.  
>"HELP!" It was coming from an alley up ahead to his right.<p>

"Please, somebody, anybody, HELP!" There it was again. It sounded like a young boy.

Wally's hero instincts kicked in, and he veered off of his course towards the noise. Arriving near instantly at the alley, he peeked around the corner to get a look at the situation.

A young sandy haired boy was sitting on the ground, backed up against the wall. He had on dirty blue jeans, a brown belt, and a striped blue and white shirt. Surrounding him were three older teenaged guys, two of which had knives. The third, clearly the leader of the small gang, had a hand gun, which was currently pointed at the boy's chest.

"I'll ask you again, kid, give us your money!" the greasy haired gun wielder growled. He took a step closer to the boy, who cringed against the wall.

"I-I told you, I d-don't have any money!" The child stammered.

"Liar!" said one of the dark haired goons, and lunged at the boy. KF felt the fury that had been building in his chest since he arrived on the scene burst.

"Oh no, you don't!" Wally shouted, and quickly disarmed Goon 1.

**Bam.**

_Night, night!_ He thought.

Turning, he kicked the gun out of leader-boy's hand and into his face.

_Out like a light._

The last goon managed to get a swing in with the knife, but Wally was too fast. He dodged, and punched him in the jaw. The knife flew out of Goon 2's hand.

_Sweet dreams, bastards. Hope you all enjoy your rewards for picking on an innocent kid. It's called jail time! Have fun!_

He rubbed his fist, and turned back to the boy

"Hey, you okay, kid?" Wally asked, helping him up. The boy looked up from staring at the would-be muggers. He smiled brightly.

"Yeah, I'm great! Thanks! Hey, you're Kid Flash, aren't you? I think that what you and the Flash do is really cool!" he gushed. KF laughed.

"Nice to see that _someone_ appreciates me! So, kid, tell me, what are you doing out so early? I thought that all of the kids slept till _noon_ during the summer. I mean, I would too, but Flash depends on me to help manage the crime here in the city!" Wally gloated. The kid suddenly looked kinda sheepish.

"Well, I'm supposed to be going over to my friend's house, but on the way there I got a little hungry, so I took a little detour to stop at the Seven-Eleven, and then I had to cut through this alley, and then they popped up out of no where!" he said, gesturing at the knocked out teens.

"Where is your friend's house from here?" Wally asked.

"It's over that way." The boy said, pointing in the opposite direction from the way Wally was supposed to go to meet his uncle in… Oh boy, _one minute_! Wally sighed. He couldn't just leave this kid here alone! Especially not after he just got mugged! Sighing again, he turned to the boy.

"Well, I'm supposed to be meeting the Flash in a few seconds…" Wally started. The boy's face fell.

"But, still, what do you say to hitchin' a ride with me? I can have you to your friend's house fast, and the Flash will understand why I'm a few seconds late!"

"Really? That would be awesome! My friend has wanted to meet you!" the kid jumped up and down in excitement. Wally leaned down to let the boy clamber onto his back.

"I'm going to need you to give me directions. Now hold on tight!" With that, they were off.

"WAHOOOOO!" the sandy haired Boy laughed. "Okay, take a right here!"

Wally turned right.

"Now go left!"

Wally went left.

"Keep going this way for a little while."

Wally went straight. As he ran, he took a look around at the street he was running on. The Upper East Side. This was definitely **not** his favorite part of town. He couldn't count the number of drug rings and muggers he'd brought down in this place over the years. The kid called again from Wally's back.

"Okay, turn into this alley up here! That's where the door into my friend's apartment building is!" Wally obliged, skidding to a halt in front of a decrepit gray building. It was about five stories high, and the paint was peeling. A few of the windows on the top floor where smashed in. It was oddly familiar, and _not _in a good way.

Wally let the Kid down off of his back, ignoring the hostile looks he got from some of the people walking by. Looking back at the Kid, he caught sight of a strange mischievous smile on his passenger's face. Then it was gone, replaced by the look of joy that it had worn since Wally had beat up the bad-guys. Wally brushed the strange smile out of his mind.

"Are ya sure this is your friends house, kid? It looks kinda… abandoned." He asked. The Boy nodded furiously.

"Mmm-Hmm. This is it! Come on!" He bounded away into the alley to the right of the building before Wally could reply.

"Hey kid! Wait up! Your gonna get mugged again!" Wally shouted at the retreating Child's back.

"No I won't!" the reply floated back. With a slight smile at the child's antics, a glance at his watch, a groan, and a face palm, Wally followed the child into the alley.

"Kid?" He asked into the darkness. There was no answer.

"You better not be playing games with me! I told you, I'm on a deadline!" He said, warily stepping farther into the alley.

"Wow. That was a _really_ poor choice of words." a voice said behind him. Whipping around, Wally came face to face with the Boy.

"Oh. It's just you. Well, if this is your friend's place I guess I'll just be goi- wait, why is it a poor choice of words?" Ignoring KF's last question, the Boy took a few steps forward, forcing Wally back farther into the alley.

"You know, my friend wants to meet you _really badly_." Another few steps forward.

"Uhhh, Kid? You're startin' to freak me out a little bit here." The boy kept ignoring him, taking a few more steps forward. Wally backed up even more. Suddenly, he ran into something hard. He whipped around once again. Standing there was a big, hulking mountain of a beast-like man. Wally back-pedaled again, this time in the direction of the kid, who simply continued speaking.

"He wants to meet you _so badly_ that he hired me and my pets here," another man-beast stepped out behind the child, blocking the escape route "and my other pets back in that other alley, to…_ invite_ you over to his house for a… _extended stay._ Doesn't that sound fun?" He concluded with cheer.

"Uh, no, it doesn't. I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline his invitation. I was always taught to not go into stranger's houses!" With that, Wally punched the man-beast in front of him.

"ACK!" He clutched his throbbing hand. "Dude, I think you just broke my fingers!" he said. The man-beast did not respond, and instead lashed out quicker than should be possible for his size, catapulting Wally into the _other _man-beast. Well, more specifically, Wally catapulted right into his _fist_. The Child simply stepped out of the way of the flying hero with a slight frown and a furrowed brow.

"Oh, I had _so_ hoped that you would come peacefully." The Kid said with a sigh. "My friend paid us good money in advance for you to be unharmed." Walking over to the hero on the ground, he pulled out a small syringe that had been cleverly concealed in his belt. Leaning down, he stabbed Wally in the arm, injecting him with whatever fluid the syringe had contained. Wally gave a small gasp.

"What was that?"

"Don't worry; it's just my special brand of incapacitating agent. I like to call it I.A.3.2. It instantly paralyzes the victim from the neck down, and then takes a few minutes to actually render them unconscious. I'm planning to market it to those villains who like to gloat as they take down their adversaries."

"Like your doing now?" Wally asked through gritted teeth. The Kid looked down, almost as if surprised to see that he was there. He blinked, and then smiled.

"No, I wouldn't _gloat_. Not over _you,_ at least. Ya see, I wasn't lying when I said that I admired you. You have such… _power_. Just like all of my pets! That's one of the reasons I adopted these poor babies," he said, gesturing to the man-beasts, "who had no one to turn to after their old leader _tragically_ vanished. I adopted all of my pets." The Kid was still leaning over Wally. To the young hero, the words being spoken started to sound a little muffled. Wally's vision started to tunnel.

Rubbing his chin with a small hand, The Kid continues. "Maybe I _can_ still adopt _you_…"

"Uhhhh, Boss?" Someone said. It was the greasy haired gun-wielder, who was standing in the entrance to the alley. The Kid stood up straight. With a sigh, and a glance at the fading hero on the ground, he began to give directions.

"Alright, two will accompany me to deliver him to our friend." He said to the man-beasts. He turned to the teen.

Wally's vision was almost gone. The Kid sounded like he was speaking from far away.

"You will take the others and sweep away _any _trace of our being here or in the other al…"

Then everything went black.

**A/N: Darn, I feel evil… **

**OH WELL. I'll get over it! *Mischievous grin* I considered ending on "Wally followed the child into the alley." But I want to get to the other stuff fast. Plus, now this chappie is longer! **

**Also, I'll probably be skipping around A LOT. Please, just review and tell me if anything gets confusing. Actually, review any way. I think we all know how ANNOYING it is when a story has a hundred views and favorites, but only two reviews.**

**I could NOT think of a real name for the blond Bait-Kid. But I like this character (and all of his pet man-beasts and teens), so… any ideas for a name? Best one gets a mention next chapter plus extra virtual Thin-Mints! **

**Disclaimer: As soon as I own YJ, I'll let you know. But I don't own YJ. I just own this particular story. And the man-beasts. And Bait-Kid. Hmmmm, I'm starting to warm up to that name…**


	2. Chapter 2: I'm bad with chapter titles

**A/N: I AM ALIVE! I SWEAR IT!**

**Thanks to LTRB (yeah, I meant to delete that) and Broken Antler in Winter for reviewing and for suggesting names for Blond Bait Kid. **

**And the winner is… *drum role***

**Sebastian****! You're right, it really does fit him. **

**His middle name shall be Damon (Dami for short, if it pleases you, my reviewer). **

**And his last name shall be Kristoff. Only because that one made me laugh a lot. I don't know why.**

"Where is he?!" Barry Allen, the Flash, nearly shouted as he paced the length of the abandoned café* at superspeed. He was burning a mark in the floor in the process.

"He was supposed to meet me here half an hour ago!" Coming to a stop, Flash sighed, and pulled out his cell phone.

"Calm down Barry, he probably just over slept. Like usual." He muttered to himself as he dialed up his step-sister. He tapped his foot impatiently as the phone rang.

"Hello?" A woman's voice asked.

"Hi, Mary. It's Barry**. Listen, uh-"

"Oh, Barry, how are you? It's been a while since we last saw each other, though Wally does his best to keep me posted on you and Iris." Mary West said to the speedster, whose foot was tapping even faster now as he stared out of the windows, searching for his nephew's distinctive yellow and red blur.

"Fine, fine. Listen, is Wally awake yet? I was supposed to meet him half an hour ago.

"No, he's not asleep. He left to go meet you about forty minutes ago. Is he still not there?" Mary's voice became laced with worry for his son.

"No, he's not here. That's why I asked."

"Oh Barry, do you think he's all right?! I couldn't live with my self if… if…" She trailed of, unable to continue. Barry took a deep breath. She had just voiced the same fears that Barry faced every time Wally went with him on a mission. But he had to be strong, for Wally, and for his distraught sister-in-law.

"Mary, calm down, I'm sure he's fine. He probably just got distracted with a pick pocket. He does that a lot. I'm sure he's fine. He's just running a little late." He said, his voice steady. Though he was reassuring himself more than Mary, the mother seemed to calm down.

"You're right. I'm jumping to conclusions. He's fine. Just late." She repeated.

"Here, how about I go ahead and search the city and see if he's here? I'll call you after to tell you whether or not I found him. Does that sound okay?" Barry offered.

"Okay. Call me when you're done." She hung up. Barry put away his phone and sighed, rubbing his face against the palm of his hand.

"Wally, where are you?!" he muttered. Then he was gone in a flash of crimson.

THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE.

_Uhhhh... my head. Where am I?_

"Well. Here he is, just as you asked. Do you have the rest of our money?"

_Money? For what? My money? Did I forget my money? Lunch money? I _am_ hungry... And why does that voice sound so… familiar?_

"Yeah, yeah. Here ya go. Take yer stinken money."

_Okay, I definitely know that voice. But from where…_

"…Seven hundred… eight hundred… nine hundred… Ah! One thousand! It has been a pleasure doing business with you, sir. I trust you'll spread the name around? You know how it is when you're just getting started out!"

_Oh yeah. I've heard that voice before. Recently. But who… Oh well. I'll figure it out. Hope that kid got home sa… Wait, the _Kid_! That's it! That's who that is! When I get my hands on him…_

"Sure, sure. I'll spread the word. What was it… uh, Kristian, right?"

_Now I just have to figure out who that is._ _I don't think I like him, though…_that_ would explain why I'm bound and gagged…_

"Sebastian. Sebastian Damon Krist_off._"

_So that's his real name, huh? I'll have to ask Rob to look 'im up. When I get outta here, that is…_

"What ever you say, kid. Now why don't ya scram? I want sum alone time wi' my dear, _dear_ **son**."

_Son? Wait. Wait. No. No, it can't be. U-Uncle*** Barry put _him_ away years ago! It can't be. No, no nononononononono…_

THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE.

Robin cackled as he flipped over Kaldur, dodging the older boy's moves easily. Dick knew that the leader wasn't really trying. Neither was he. This was just for fun, something to pass the time until Wally arrived from patrol with his uncle.

It was strange. Wally was always late, but he usually got to the cave only about fifteen minutes after everyone else. Today, he was almost half an hour late. Dick was worried for his friend, though he (being Robin) hid it well.

Suddenly, the Zeta-Tube came to life.

_Recognized, Black Canary, A-1-3_

Kaldur stopped sparring, and turned to the whirring Zeta-Tube. Taking this as an opportunity, Robin smiled and grabbed Kaldur's hand, flipping him over his shoulder and onto his back. Standing over his leader, Robin let out another cackle. The others joined in; even Kal cracked a smile from his position on the floor.

"Sorry I'm late. It's good to see that you got started with out me." Black Canary said, looking pointedly at the Atlantean on the ground as she stepped out from the light. She looked around at the others, who had been watching.

"Where's Wally?" she asked.

"He's with the Flash. He was patrolling with him today." Rob replied, helping Kaldur off of the floor.

"He'll probably be here soon. Wally probably just got distracted with having a snack or five." Artemis said, stepping forward from the wall she had been leaning against with a small smirk. She crossed her arms as she walked over to stand next to Robin.

Rob studied her out of the corner of his eye. He shoulders were tense, and her eyes kept darting toward the Zeta-Tube.

_She's worried too._ He thought to himself.

Canary smiled at Artemis, then rubbed her face tiredly.

"Sorry, it's been a long day." She sighed. The others smiled at her. The life of a superhero could be rough.

"Now then, since he's not here yet, we'll just have to get started. Kaldur, your defense was good, but when facing small, quick opponents, like Robin, you have-"

She was interrupted by the whirring of the Zeta-Tube coming to life once again. Robin and the others turned toward it.

"See? Here he is." Artemis said, smiling.

_Recognized, Flash A-0-4_

The smile fell from her face as the computer announced the arrival of a different speedster than the one she had been hoping to see.

The Flash shot out of the Zeta-Tube, and skidded to a stop near the team. He was breathing hard, his expression frantic. He glanced around at the surprised faces of the Team and Canary, as if looking for someone. Scanning their faces, his expression simply became more worried.

Canary stepped up to the man.

"Flash? Are you all ri-?" she started cautiously.

Suddenly, he shoots away, cutting her off.

"Flash!" she yells after him. She exchanged worried glances with the teens surrounding her, but made no move to follow. After all, it was the Flash. They'd never catch up.

For a few seconds, all they could see were a few blurs of crimson, flashing from hallway to hallway. Almost as suddenly as he had started, the Flash pulled up in front of the young heroes and Canary. Breathing even harder than before, he looked around at their faces once more. Robin stepped up to the frazzled speedster.

"Flash, what is wrong?" he asked, concerned. The speedster took a deep, shaky breath.

"Well,Wallywassupposedtomeetmeearlierforpatrol,buthenevershowedup. Icalledhismomtoaskifhewasstillathome, causeyouknowWally, buthewasn't. ThenIcalledhiscomlink, andhiscell, andtryedtofindhistrackingsignal, butIcouldn't. SoIsearchedthewholecity, andGotham, andStar, and-"

"FLASH!" Artemis, Canary, and Robin all yelled at the same time, interrupting the flow of words from the man's mouth.

"We can't understand you when you talk that fast. Now, what's wrong? Slower this time." Artemis said, with surprising patience. The flash took another deep breath. Looking around at them, he spoke.

"Wally is missing."

THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE.

**A/N: Mwahaha! Evil cliffy! Except, it isn't really a cliffy, considering we already know what happened. Heh. **

**This chapter is so much shorter than the first one… Oh well. **

***I saw in another fic that there was a Zeta Tube in an old abandoned café in Central City, so I decided to use it as the meeting place. It's not a zeta tube though, just a sorta safe place for the two speedsters to meet up at before patrolling. **

****Heh. I rhymed.**

*****Can you stutter when you're thinking?**

**Cookies to those who review!**

**Disclaimer: *Checks files, emails, extra* Nope. Don't own any of the characters. I don't even own the original idea. Just this particular story. *sigh***


	3. Chapter 3

GG: I HAVE AN EXCUSE FOR BEING SOOOOOOOOOOO LATE! The computer that I had been using to write my stories crashed. All of my precious, precious fanfictions (the word documents at least) were wiped from existence.

***Sniff* **

**That includes everything I had written of this chapter, and what I had worked on for my other fanfictions. So I had to start completely new. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. **

**AND THEN I ended up writing and rewriting this chapter over and over again! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHFFFAAAAFFFSSSLJIOEJNMCGAAAAAAAAAAAAH!**

**Ahem.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE. THIS IS A LINE.

"Mom! I'm home from school!"

An eight-year-old red-head walked into the door of his small house as his mother, at her desk, looked up and smiled.

"Hey sweetie. How was your day?"

"Great! My science teacher showed us a new experiment in class! Watch!" He proceeded to take of his shoes and rub his socked feet around on the carpet. After a while, he walked over to his mother and poked her. As he did, he shocked her slightly. In order to humor him, she flailed away in mock pain.

"Ow!" she yelled, causing him to fall on the floor, overcome with laughter. After a while he sat up. "Can I watch some TV, mom?"

"Do you have homework?"

"Uh… No?" he said in an effort to get out of work. His mother saw right through it.

"Wally, you know the rules. Go do your homework. Then you can watch TV."

With a groan, Wally trudged away up the stairs to his room. After about an hour of moaning and groaning his way through his third-grade homework, he wandered back to his mother's office.

"What's for dinner?" Wally asked as he went into the room. She looked up.

"Let's go see what we have."

He sprinted towards the kitchen.

His mom laughed as she stood up and turned off her computer. Following her son to the kitchen, she stopped in front of the fridge.

"What would you like?" she asked as she opened the door, letting out a waft of cold air.

"I don't know." He replied. Smiling cheekily, he added "how about food?"

"Oh, you. How about mac'n'cheese? I still have some homemade in here."

"Okay!" he swung his legs as he sat at a tall chair next to the kitchen island. "When's dad gonna get home?" he asked as he looked toward the door leading out toward the driveway.

His mom froze, a dark look passing over her face.

"I… don't know, honey."

"Oh. Where is he now? Is he still at work?" Wally looked back at his mother, who had already resumed making his meal.

"Um, actually, he took a day off work. He went into town with his friends."

"He took off work again? Wow, he seems to be doing that a lot these days. Guess I won't see him tonight." A troubled look passed over Wally's face. "Mom? Can I ask you a question?"

"What's your question, sweetie?"

"Why don't you ever let me see dad after he goes into town with his friends? And why do you guys always fight after he goes into town?"

Wally's mom froze as she took the mac'n'cheese out of the microwave. Turning towards her son, she took a deep breath to try and control herself.

"Because when he goes out with his buddies, he gets drunk."

"What's 'drunk' mean?"

"It means that your dad goes into town and drinks beer until he can hardly stand, then he comes home, and he gets angry. Then we fight." She said as she busied herself with the mac'n'cheese. She needed to give herself something to do.

"Oh." His mother put down the noodles in her hand and walked over to stand by her son, leaning over, she put her hands on his shoulders.

"Wally, for your safety, please, please, if you ever hear us fighting, don't come near us. Just stay away. If we're fighting when you come home from school, just go to the neighbors like you would do when no one's here to let you in the house. I'll come and get you when it's safe. Just promise you'll stay away when we fight, okay?"

"Okay." Wally looked at his mother, with her dark red hair and warm eyes, and said "Okay, mom. I promise."

"Thank you Wally." She pulled him in for a hug.

Suddenly the front door slammed shut, interrupting their bonding.

"MARY! Where are ya, ya skank?! All I as' is tha my _bitch_ er a wife is there to greet me a' my door. Is tha to mu' to ask? IS IT MARY?"

"Wally, run upstairs. Here, take your food, just go. I'll be up a little later to put you to bed. Just don't come downstairs!" Mary pushed her frightened son up the stairs, away from her drunken husband.

Wally ran up to his room, and closed the door. He fell asleep with his head under his pillow, to the sound of yelling and screaming. He didn't even finish his mac'n'cheese.

The next day, all was quiet as Wally came home from school. Remembering the night before, Wally put his ear to the door to listen for sounds of fighting, ready to run to the neighbor's house if necessary. Listening quietly, he heard nothing but the sound of the TV.

_Guess Mom got done with her work on the computer early._ He thought to himself. Opening the door and walking in, he called out "Mom?"

He received no answer. He set his book bag down by the door. He cautiously continued into the house, walking past the stairs and into the kitchen. The air smelled funny, and there were a lot of empty bottles lying around the room. Wally stepped around a spill of something brown and sticky on the floor. There were shard of brown glass from a broken beer bottle mixed in with the liquid.

_So that's where the smell is coming from._ He thought. It certainly was smelly. Wally made his way over to the living room, where the TV was on.

"Mom?" he called again as he walked into the room. It was dark, with the curtains drawn, the lights out, and the only light coming from the TV. The stink, which Wally had identified as alcohol, was even worse in this room than the kitchen.

"Wa? Who's dat?" the slurred question came from the couch. Wally jumped a little in surprise. Then he relaxed. It was just Dad.

"Oh. Um, hi dad." His father stood up and tottered over toward his son. His breath smelled like the brown stuff on the floor, and he had a half empty bottle in one hand. He put his free hand on his son's shoulder and leaned heavily on it.

"Son. Wha don yew go gech yur father sum thin ta drink?" he slurred, and pushed the boy toward the kitchen before stumbling toward the easy chair.

"But, uh, you already have a drink. You're not done with it." Wally stated, confused by his dad's command. Said man stopped dead in his tracks.

"Wha di yew say ta me, boy?" he said, a dangerous tone entering his voice. Oblivious, Wally repeated himself.

"You already have a dri—" Suddenly his father was in front of him. There was something flying toward his stomach. Wally couldn't breathe. It hurt. He felt himself slam against the wall. He looked up to see his father standing over him.

"DON QUESTION ME BOY. You'll do as yer father asks!" he roared. He picked Wally up by his shirt front and shoved him into the kitchen.

"Yer stupid bitch er a mother don know how ta discipline a kid. I gotta do every thin 'round 'ere." He grumbled to himself as he stomped into the kitchen. Wally was leaning against the kitchen island, crying quietly as he clutched his stomach. Why would Dad hit him? What had he done? He looked up at his father, who finished of his beer and threw the glass down on the counter over top of Wally. The bottle shattered, and the glass shards rained down onto the boy, giving him small cuts and scrapes on his face and arms.

"Stan' up boy." He did as he was told. "Look a' yer father when he talks ta yew.' He said, grabbing the boy's face and forcing it up. "Ge' me a drink." He said, shoving his son toward the fridge.

Wally inhaled sharply as he stepped on some of the glass on the floor, but didn't cry out, for fear of another punch. Opening the fridge, he looked inside. There were a lot of different beer bottles. Wally looked around for one that looked like the bottle his dad had just been drinking.

There were none**.

"Faster, boy!" The command rang out sharply. Panicked, Wally grabbed a green beer bottle off of the shelf and slammed the fridge shut. He nearly ran over to his dad and gave him the bottle. The man was silent for a moment

"This ain't ta right one." Wally saw the hand headed toward his face, but he was too "clumsy" to avoid it.

He was always "clumsy" after that night. He always "fell down the stairs" or "fell off his bike." Always "clumsy". That's what Dad said to tell his friends, and his teachers, and, most importantly, Uncle Barry, the forensic scientist with all those nice police contacts. "I'm just clumsy." Otherwise, Dad said, Wally might be "clumsy" enough to break his neck. Or maybe his mother's neck. And he didn't want that, did he?

He didn't. So he was "clumsy" until the day that Uncle Barry came over for a surprise visit and found Dad in the middle of one of his rages. Uncle Barry put Wally's dad away. He was in for life on charges of aggravated assault and the attempted murder of Barry with a kitchen knife. Wally thought he was gone forever.

_How wrong I was._ He thought to himself as another punch landed right on hi empty stomach. _How wrong I was._

GG: I had so much trouble writing this. Stupid writer's block. We hates it. We hates it _Forevaaaaa!_

Once again, I'm sososososososososoSO sorry to keep you all waiting! It's summer now, so hopefully I'll have another update out soon-ish.

**Thanks to: randomkitty101 and jadedquartz for reviewing! Here are your virtual cookies!**

**(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) **

**More cookies available to those who review!**

***Yay, alliteration! My seventh grade teacher would be SO proud! :P**

****I feel so evil about this…Poor little Wally.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the cave. Don't own the Team. Don't own YJ. Don't own DC. Just own this particular story.**


End file.
